A week I will never forget
Check out Ryan Finn's occasional blog for CMSportsNet, where he will post his thoughts and experiences from playing high school sports in Carroll County.
Rivalry Week
What a week for basketball, am I right? This past week, our team faced our two biggest rivals, South Carroll and Liberty. Both teams got the best of us in our first match-ups, but we were looking for vengeance.
What I have noticed with playing in these big rivalry games is that no matter the talent, these games will always be close. There's always a different atmosphere when playing these games.
Down to the wire
The week started out with South Carroll, and had been something I had never seen live on a basketball court. Even with controlling most of the game, things started to come down to the wire.
After a back and forth affair, the game was all tied up. We had the ball with 2.5 seconds and no timeouts left. At that moment the unspeakable happened.
The Shot
After a made free throw from South Carroll, Jackson Smith heaved a pass to Ben Chenoweth about mid court. He caught it, took two dribbles, and shot up a prayer.
At that moment, it felt as if everything was in slow motion. The horns flared, and it was a perfect swish to win us the game. Everyone on the bench instantly burst on to the court, showering "Chen" with excitement.
It had been one of the coolest things I have seen as a high school athlete. "A half-court game-winner vs. a rival, nothing can one up that!" I thought to myself.
Boy, was I wrong.
"Best Century-Liberty game of all-time"
A quote from the Carroll County Times really sums up how this game was. A couple days after that insane buzzer-beater, we faced Liberty at home. Our team knew that this game was going to be tough.
Knowing this, we were ready to fight. What we didn't know is just how crazy this game would really be.
Our game against Liberty started off completely different from our game against South Carroll. We started off hot by taking a 12-point lead at the end of the first half. Knowing this, we knew Liberty wasn't going to go away.
Down to the wire (again)
They started to chip away at the lead, and the game started to become close. With 5 seconds left, Tyler Downs hit the game-tying basket right at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
We had our backs against the wall; Andrew Marcinko was playing with 4 fouls, and Jackson got injured. Even with all this, we weren't going to let it affect us.
With Liberty pushing in the first overtime, clutch shots from Andrew, Ryan Mathews, and Jake Winkles led us to keep the game tied. Now time for the second overtime.
Second OT
In the second overtime, we really started to pull away. More timely buckets from Andrew and Mathews really helped put the game away and give us the anticipated win.
Wins like these really build character in a team. Last week has shown our team that even when we are down, we fight back.